We're in the invisible grip of technology, politics, and our own weirdness. We gotta get better at seeing it.
Hosted by veteran journalist Jacob Ward (corresp...
Ep 04: Kat Tenbarge on Misinformation, Media, and How Influencers Work You
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit theripcurrent.substack.comThe public duels between celebrities like Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni aren’t just gossip fuel. They’re a vast business, one that’s also a thriving laboratory for experimenting with influence and public perception. Kat Tenbarge reports on these propaganda wars at Spitfire News, where she brings the dogged investigative techniques she honed at NBC New…
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Ep 03: Jennifer Freyd on DARVO and the Language of Betrayal
We’re in an upside-down moment, in which there seems to be no cost for lying and no respect for honesty. How did we get here? Jennifer Freyd can explain. Since the 1990s she’s been tracking the misbehavior of public figures and the ways that institutions unwittingly betray us. And in the process she discovered and revealed the secret, specific choreogra… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe
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Ep 02: Historian Andrew Ward on Slavery and DEI
The historian and author Andrew Ward, grew up on the South Side of Chicago and then in India before becoming a historian of colonialism and slavery. He’s also my Dad. I think he’s just the person to discuss the weird moment we’re in, when politicians are trying to erase slavery and racism from the national discussion just when we were starting to take s… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe
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The Rip Current Ep 01: Catherine Bracy on Venture Capital and How It's Eating the Economy
This is the first episode of The Rip Current podcast. Each week I’m going to be interviewing experts in everything from venture capital to the economic impact of slavery to how bullies get the best of us. My first guest is Catherine Bracy, executive director of TechEquity, a nonprofit that examines the ways technology affects equity in areas like labor and housing. She's the author of the new book World Eaters: How Venture Capital is Cannibalizing the Economy, in which Bracy argues that the trouble with tech isn't the people, or the products. It's the money. Our conversation ranges from the ways founders are trained by VCs to lie about their companies to the "Blitz Scaling" of Washington to Gary Gerstle's The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Era.For more on these topics, including a look at the VC mindset and where it leads, subscribe at TheRipCurrent.com! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe
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Unboxing Fascism
A beautifully designed bar of soap from Lisbon, Portugal had a lot to teach me about life under dictatorship. From the 1920s to the 1970s, the fascist regime of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar suppressed free expression, leading artists to pour their creative energies into what they could, including the politically acceptable decorative arts. For me, this bar of soap from Claus Porto - it's gorgeous, and you should buy one - is a symbol of how beauty and artistic distraction repackage themselves to survive oppression, and of how societies before us have leaned into decorative art when nothing else was acceptable. Let’s keep leaning into beauty, but let’s also be conscious of when we begin reshaping beauty to avoid offense, because it can be a symptom of deep national trouble. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit theripcurrent.substack.com/subscribe
We're in the invisible grip of technology, politics, and our own weirdness. We gotta get better at seeing it.
Hosted by veteran journalist Jacob Ward (correspondent for Al Jazeera, PBS, NBC News, and CNN), The Rip Current is your guide to spotting the hidden forces at work in our lives and getting across them safely.
Each week we speak to experts in the stuff you didn't know was having an impact on your life, from venture capital to racism to the tried-and-true tactics of bullies, and teach you how to see The Rip Current before it sweeps you out to sea.
Read more at TheRipCurrent.com! theripcurrent.substack.com
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